Optimize your LinkedIn Profile for SEO

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LinkedIn. Love it or hate it, it’s prominent, it’s a social network, and it lets you post URLs to your profile… except that they’re naked URLs, with no link text to help you in your search efforts, right?

Nope.

Now you can. Go to LinkedIn, make sure you have a public profile set up with a good URL, and then instead of choosing My Blog or My Company, choose Other.

Cha-ching! Link text in your profile from a prominent, trusted domain.

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Comments

25 responses to “Optimize your LinkedIn Profile for SEO”

March 4, 2008

Reed Smith

hey very cool. Thanks for pointing out. I am over to my profile now to change…

Reply
March 4, 2008

Reed Smith

hey very cool. Thanks for pointing out. I am over to my profile now to change…

Reply
March 4, 2008

Donna Papacosta

Very useful tip, Chris. Thanks for sharing!

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March 4, 2008

Colin

Chris, unfortunately, that won’t really work. Most sites use “ref=nofollow” which tells search engines to ignore the link. Linked In and Myspace re-encode the link. For example – my site – http://www.topstartup.com becomes http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etopstartup%2Ecom&urlhash=pVU8

This does nothing for SEO.

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March 4, 2008

Colin

Chris, unfortunately, that won’t really work. Most sites use “ref=nofollow” which tells search engines to ignore the link. Linked In and Myspace re-encode the link. For example – my site – http://www.topstartup.com becomes http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etopstartup%2Ecom&urlhash=pVU8

This does nothing for SEO.

Reply
March 5, 2008

Christopher S. Penn

Colin,

Normally you’d be right, but take a look at the source of your public LinkedIn page. Mine shows completely unobstructed valid URLs without a nofollow in sight.

Reply
March 5, 2008

Christopher S. Penn

Colin,

Normally you’d be right, but take a look at the source of your public LinkedIn page. Mine shows completely unobstructed valid URLs without a nofollow in sight.

Reply
March 4, 2008

Donna Papacosta

Very useful tip, Chris. Thanks for sharing!

Reply
March 6, 2008

Mircea / iSPINIT.com

Chris is right… the public profile shows unobstructed URLs.

In fact this solves one of my mysteries: a search for “my podcast” on Google.com http://www.google.com/search?q=%22my+podcast%22&hl=en&start=50&sa=N returned “my podcast” iSPINIT on page 6, and on Google.ca on page 3: http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22my+podcast%22&hl=en&start=20&sa=N

Very cool! Thx, Penn!

Reply
March 6, 2008

Mircea / iSPINIT.com

Chris is right… the public profile shows unobstructed URLs.

In fact this solves one of my mysteries: a search for “my podcast” on Google.com http://www.google.com/search?q=%22my+podcast%22&hl=en&start=50&sa=N returned “my podcast” iSPINIT on page 6, and on Google.ca on page 3: http://www.google.ca/search?q=%22my+podcast%22&hl=en&start=20&sa=N

Very cool! Thx, Penn!

Reply
March 6, 2008

Mircea / iSPINIT.com

I forgot to mention on the above comment that the LinkedIn hyper link used to be “My Podcast”…

Reply
March 6, 2008

Mircea / iSPINIT.com

I forgot to mention on the above comment that the LinkedIn hyper link used to be “My Podcast”…

Reply
March 6, 2008

Eban Crawford

Thanks for that information Chris. I am heading over to set my links up now.

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March 6, 2008

Eban Crawford

Thanks for that information Chris. I am heading over to set my links up now.

Reply
November 10, 2008

Peter

Hi this is a very good website i often visit this website. It provide all the relevant information. The most important thing is that it allows the users to give their suggestions that is comments.
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Peter
SEO

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December 16, 2008

Orange County SEO

Thanks for the tips, I will definitely try that, it’s a good opportunity. I was actually worried about the impossibility of placing link texts but it looks that they thought about this too and they set everything for a new “link friendly interface”.

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March 11, 2009

Traffic Geyser

I’m one year late on using this application.. but anyway I will try this one also, like everyone says.. its better late than never.

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April 22, 2009

Anthony @WSBD1.com

very cool, i already used this trick. and now im following you on linkedin

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April 22, 2009

Anthony @WSBD1.com

very cool, i already used this trick. and now im following you on linkedin

Reply
April 22, 2009

Anthony @WSBD1.com

very cool, i already used this trick. and now im following you on linkedin

Reply
April 23, 2009

Anthony @WSBD1.com

very cool, i already used this trick. and now im following you on linkedin

Reply
May 11, 2009

Outsourcing Manila

LinkedIn profile saved my business. I wish I would have thought of it first.

Reply
December 29, 2009

ryanconlon78

Thanks for all your tips. i look forward to more posts from you.

Reply
December 30, 2009

YourMNDJ

Thanks for all your tips. i look forward to more posts from you.

Reply
December 30, 2009

YourMNDJ

Thanks for all your tips. i look forward to more posts from you.

Reply